Artist:

The Influence

Memories of exploding buildings, gunfire, and threats of violence followed Matthew Archer Stephenson long after his return from El Salvador to Virginia Beach. Growing up during the peak of the Salvadoran Civil War and its aftermath makes for an uniquely traumatic childhood, but it also provides context for the themes of fear, rage, love and longing found in the lyrics of one of the East Coast’s premier rock bands, The Influence.